Mack’s Morning Report – 1-9-15 – Andrew Barbosa, Yoenes Cespedes, Motherfucking, Sandy Alderson

Good morning.

The Mets signed an interesting minor leaguer last week. 6-8 LHP Andrew Barbosa signed with the Mets after going 9-ST, 4-1, 2.82 for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League (Indy) last year. He also went 16-G, 5-ST, 5-2, 2.68 for the AA affiliate of Arizona the same season, the team that drafted him in 2002.

Barbosa has never pitched bad (26-19, 3.64) in professional baseball but his problem is he graduated (South Florida) at the age of 24 and he’s now a 28-year old pitcher that has never pitched past the AA level.

I’m sure he’s down the pecking order of available LHRPs, but 423 strikeouts in 346 professional innings isn’t something to walk away from.

Las Vegas currently has 14 pitchers in their pen if you add Barbosa to it. I would consider pitching him in Binghamton where there is more room.

From the mail bag –

Tony asked – A quick question Mack… how representative is Mack’s Mets to the rest of the Mets World? All of you you here still seem to be pretty stuck on the loss of Cespedes. My guess is the majority of Mets fan have moved on. Comments?

          Mack – Thanks for the question, Tony.

First, I think Mack’s Mets is very representative of mature, adult Mets fans that have followed this team for over 30 years. We are a mature site with both mature writers and readers.

I can’t speak for, nor do I follow, the rest of the Mets blog worlds. I stay within my tunnel and offer what I think has been a mistake to let Cespedes go, but I don’t know all the parameters of any negotiation and the Mets may never have got close to him.

Yes, there is still a tremendous amount of discussion here on Cespedes, both by readers and writers, but that should calm down once he signs somewhere.

I’ve moved on and I welcome everyone else to, but I am patient enough to wait out the process.

Mark Healey reprinted an old story on two Mets catchers, Todd Hundley and Mike Piazza… interesting read.

“Motherfucking” is the baseball term for back-stabbing, and for beat reporters, motherfucking means bad-mouthing other reporters to those reporters’ sources. It is one of the profession’s cardinal sins, along with “cock-watching and looking at other writers’ screens,” as one writer put it. (Also forbidden: cheering in the press box and giving off any appearance that you actually enjoy what you do.)

Mack – as many of you know, the Mets beat press (minus Kevin Kernan) treated me like mud for the entire four years the Mets allowed me in the Mets spring training clubhouse. I was a sports reporter for a Savannah newspaper that covered the Sand Gnats and I was no competition to any of them. Still, they chose to make believe I was invisible. So be it.

Sandy Alderson came out swing on his first day back in his office, depending the amount of money the Mets are spending on the team.

His math is interesting… he points out that team payroll has gone from $85mil in 2014 to a projected 2016 salary between $115-$120mil.

He tries to excite us about the $35mil increase over the past two years, but he forgets to mention that last year’s salaries ended at around $110mil and the 2016 payroll which includes projected arbitration raises, will come around $109mil.

The direction of the 2016 Mets seems to be as divisive as a discussion about gun control and we'll get another opinion on Sandy and the team from Bob Gregory tomorrow morning when he guest hosts the morning report for me.